This grew out of my Down Da Road I Go Blog which now has become primarily what I'm doing and music.
I was getting so much history in it, I spun this one off and now have World War II and War of 1812 blogs which came off this one.
The Blog List below right has all the way too many blogs that I write.

Friday, June 30, 2017

All of its endeavors cost money and Major League Baseball and the players union have stepped in and presented the museum with a $1 million grant to help with operating costs, expansion plans and educational opportunities.

The integration of baseball in the 1940s and 1950s led to the decline of the Negro Leagues, and the last teams folded in the early 1960s. By the late 1980s, the era was largely forgotten.

Tony Clark, the first black executive director of the players union, said the grant will help ensure the Negro Leagues and their players are never forgotten. "Today's players are committed to providing opportunities for underserved populations to play baseball," Clark said. "We all believe the Negro Leagues' storied history can play an important role in our game's future by inspiring minority youth to play."

Well, I am hoping most of the money will be going to preserving the history of the Negro Leagues. Kids can always pick up a glove and a bat and learn to play on their own.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Just a few days ago the Chicago Cubs played the Pittsburgh Pirates and both teams were wearing strange uniforms. We were sitting at Sunnyside Tap in Johnsburg and trying to figure out where the uniforms came from and then it seemed to me that the uniforms worn by the Pirates had the name of an old Negro League team on it.

A guy looked it up on his "Idge"phone and found out both teams were wearing old Negro League jerseys.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was founded nearly 30 years ago in a one-room office and set out to preserve an important yet quickly fading era of America's pastime.

Its mission has evolved over the years to where it is not only the caretaker for the past but a bridge to the future. The Buck O'Neil Education and Research Center and a $19 million urban youth academy is in development to attract more kids to the game.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

James McCloughan was then a 23-year-old private first class who had been drafted the previous year after earning a degree in sociology from Olivet College. He repeatedly entered the "Kill Zone" to rescue wounded comrades despite the flying shrapnel from rocket propelled grenades.

He "voluntarily risked his life on nine separate occasions to rescue wounded and disoriented comrades" said the White House.

McCloughan described the shrapnel as a "real bad sting." In 2016, then Secretary of Defense Ash Carter recommended him for the honor which usually is supposed to be awarded within five years of the event, but Congress can waive that time limit which is what happened in McCloughan's case.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

From the June 14, 2017, Chicago Tribune "Medic 1st to get Medal of Honor from Trump" by Mike Householder, AP.

Members of Army medic James McCloughan's unit in Vietnam called him "Doc."

Now, these soldiers, several of whom McCloughan saved during the ferocious days-long Battle of Nui Yon Hill in 1969 will call him Medal of Honor Recipient.

James McCloughan, 71, of South Haven, Michigan will become the first to receive the nation's highest military honor from President Donald Trump. "I feel honored to be able to accept this for the 89 men that fought that battle. Those were the U.S. combatants, dozens of whom were killed, wounded or missing in the 48-hour battle fighting hundreds of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.

Monday, June 26, 2017

Said Dennis McNally, longtime publicist of the Grateful Dead: "Every fantasy about the summer of '67 that was ever created -- peace, joy, love, nonviolence, wear some flowers in your hair and fantastic music -- was real at Monterrey." he has curated an exhibit at the California Historical Society on it which will run through September 10.

The exhibit, "On the Road to the Summer of Love" explains how the epic summer came about and why San Francisco became its home..

The national press paid little attention to what was going on in San Francisco until January 1967, when poets and bands joined together for the "Human-Be-In," a Golden Gate Park gathering that unexpectedly drew about 50,000 people. It was there that LSD-advocate Timothy Leary said "Turn On. Tune In. Drop Out."

But, that Summer of Love had its drawbacks. Tens of thousands of youths looking for free love and drugs flooded to San Francisco, living in the streets and begging for food. Parents journey to the city looking for their young runaways. There was an epidemic of toxic psychedelics and harder drugs hit the streets.

Friday, June 23, 2017

Jefferson Airplane eventually bought a house a few blocks away on Fulton Street, where they hosted legendary wild parties.

"The music is what everyone seems to remember, but it was a lot more than that," said David Freiberg, 75, bassist for the Quicksilver Messenger Service who later joined the Jefferson Airplane. "It was artists, poets, musicians, all those beautiful shops of clothes and hippie food stores. It was a whole community." Counter-culture all the way.

The bands dropped by each other's houses and played music nearby, often in free outdoor concerts at Golden Gate Park and its eastward extension known as the Panhandle.

They developed an exciting new breed of folk jazz and blues-inspired electrical music which became known as the San Francisco Sound. Several of its most influential local acts -- the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company (which launched Janis Joplin's career) became famous during the summer of 1967's Monterrey Pop Festival.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

One thing for sure, that "Summer of Love" could not happen in San Francisco today, simply because the struggling artists and hippies could not afford the city anymore. In the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, ground zero for the counterculture 50 years ago, a two-bedroom apartment now rents for $5,000 a month.

San Francisco does still remain a magnet for young people, but even those with six-figure salaries in Silicon Valley complain about costs.

In the mid-1960s, rent in the Haight-Ashbury was extremely cheap.

Bob Weir remembers that the Grateful Dead shared a spacious Victorian on Ashbury Street. Janis HJoplin lived down the street. Across from her was Joe McDonald, of the Country Joe and the Fish band.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

From the May 17, 2017, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois) "Looking Back."

1917, 100 Years Ago.

"A car of coal going through there sometime during the night sprung a leak somewhere along the line and there was a great quantity of fuel scattered along the railroad tracks through DeKalb.

"The train stopped here and at this place several hundred pounds were lost. Some of the coal was picked up during the early morning hours when there were no railroad men around to stop such procedure."

Saturday, June 17, 2017

San Francisco is hoping to capitalize on its connection to that summer and get a new influx of tourism, both from those originals, those of us who might have wanted to be there as well as those too young or not born yet.

My parents took the family on a trip out to California that year and we drove through the Haight-Asbury area and it sure was all flower power. But, since I was with my parents and only 16, there obviously wasn't much I did other than to observe.

The city is celebrating with museum exhibits, music and film festivals, Summer of Love-inspired dance parties and lecture panels. Hotels are offering discount packages that include "psychedelic cocktails," "Love Bus" tours, tie-dyed tote bags and bubble wands.

Friday, June 16, 2017

From the June 14, 2017, Chicago Tribune "Can 'Summer of Love' get its spring back?" by Jocelyn Gecker.

"They came for the music, the mind-bending drugs, to resist the Vietnam War and 1960s American orthodoxy, or simply to escape summer boredom. And they left an enduring legacy.

"This season marks the 50th anniversary of that legendary 'Summer of Love,' when throngs of American youth descended on San Francisco to join a cultural revolution."

Said Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, who had dropped out of high school and helped form the group in 1965: "There was a spirit in the air. We figured that if enough of us got together and put our hearts and minds to it, we could make it happen."

At the time, Janet Guthrie had spent 13 years racing and had no money.

She and Rolla Vollstedt did not qualify for the Indy 500 in 1976, but made it in 1977.

She was not welcomed by the male racers She recalls them saying, "Our blood is going to be on your hands if you don't keep her out of this." People would yell from the grandstands "Get the (breasts) out of the pits!" She was amazed at how much hostility there was toward her.

Racing legend Mario Andretti was one of the few who stuck up for her at the time. he once said she had proved herself and had become "just another car in front of you that you wanted to pass."

Sadly, Janet Guthrie had to drop out of her first race as her engine failed after 10 laps. She finished 29th. The following year she finished in ninth place.

The Daytona 500 in 1980 was her last major race. For the next three years, she tried to find sponsors, but ran out of money.

Stars and stripes were added to the U.S. flag each July 4th following the state's entry into the Union. But once there were twenty states (20 stars and 20 stripes), designers got the notion to flag wasn't going to look good.

The Flag Act of 1818 returned the flag to its original 13 stripes, but allowed the stars in the union to increase for each new state. Those thirteen stripes represent the original 13. The arrangement of stars changes as their number increased.

Under president James Madison, the United States welcomed Illinois into the Union on December 3, 1818, and about seven months later, the flag had a new star update.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

I already have one flying by the garage door, but I also put up one on the back deck and the mailbox.

I have a small yard flag flying and flag pennants on the porch columns.

I also have my pride and joy U.S. flag, the Bennington 76 hanging from the roof of the porch. I bought this flag back in 1976, our nation's bicentennial, so it doesn't stay up for long each year because of its age. It is 41 years old.

The flag made by Betsy Ross depicted 13 red and white horizontal stripes in alternating colors, and a blue field with 13 stars arranged in a circle. Other flags were created at the time with stars in a staggered pattern other than her circle.

The original 13 star flag remained the official flag of the United States until the addition of two more states, Vermont and Kentucky. A fifteen star flag made its appearance in 1785, but this flag not only had 15 stars, but also the addition of two more stripes. This new flag was the one that flew at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, the "Star-Spangled Banner."

Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and amateur poet was aboard a British ship (where he had gone to negotiate the release of a friend) when the fort was bombarded. This was the inspiration to pen the poem "The Star-Spangled Banner."

It started as a poem, but music was added and it has been the National Anthem ever since, though not officially for many years. Currently the Fort McHenry flag is at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

The flag went from having 13 stars, representing the 13 colonies to the 50 stars for the states we have today. Most of the states are located between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but today it also stretches across the Pacific to Hawaii and northward to Alaska.

Hawaii is the 50th and last state to join the Union. It was a state when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. back then, the U.S. flag had 48 stars as Alaska was also not a state.

The Flag Resolution passed by the Second Continental Congress on June 4, 1777, said: "Resolved, that the flag of the 13 United States be 13 stripes alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

Legend has it that Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, designed and sewed the first flag. Some sources say she was a friend of the Washington family.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Evidently, this Carl Swanson was very good at building World War I planes.

"A Pup could turn twice to an Albatros' once" and that was very important in a dogfight. German flyers tried to avoid fighting a Pup.

The Museum of Flight's Sopwith Camel Pup was built by Carl Swanson of Darien, Wisconsin, and is considered a masterpiece of replication-- right down to the LePhone 9D, 80 horsepower rotary engine and .303 inch Vickers machine gun.

If I'm ever in the Seattle Area Again, I'll Have to Visit This Museum. --DaCoot

Friday, June 9, 2017

""'Hey! Watch our Red Baron!' Another World War One fighter plane has been restored by Carl R. Swanson, owner of the Sycamore Airport.

"The British made plane is a navy version 2F1 Sopwith Camel Bi-Plane, and there are only two like it still in existence. It is called a Camel because of the hump it has on the front of the plane where one of its twin guns fit."

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Janet Guthrie, 79, wanted to be an astronaut. Both her parents were pilots and she learned to fly at age 16. When she tried to become an astronaut, she was rejected in 1963 and then turned her attention to racing cars.

Unlike her male counterparts, she could get no sponsorships (and it is very expensive to race those cars) She couldn't even get any funding. She built her own engines, did her own body work. She'd tow her Jaguar XK 140 behind an old station wagon (which she bought for $45) around the country. At night, she'd sleep in the station wagon.

Racing has come a long way for women since then

Her career changed in 1976 when Rolla Volstedt called. He was an innovative, low-budget team owner from Portland, Oregon, who wanted to take the first female driver to the Indy 500. No woman had ever raced it before.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Today marks the conclusion of one of the last major clashes between battleships, the Battle of Jutland, between the German and British fleets.off Denmark.

The British had 151 combat ships, including 28 battleships and 9 battle cruisers fought the Germans who had 99 combat ships, including 16 battleships and 5 battle cruisers. British losses included 3 battle cruisers and 6.094 killed and 624 wounded. German losses were one battle cruiser and 2,551 killed.

As horrible as was his experience, Steve Wissen remembers other: "I was the first one to get to Gordon Smiley when he died (in 1982). I was with the first crew to reach Danny Ongais (1981) when he had his horrifying wreck. Good grief, who can forget Jim Crawford (1990)? We had already started to pull out, and the next thing we know, he's 10 feet above our heads, car and all."

But, he says, he has also had some great times with the friends he made. He remembers A.J. Foyt telling stories during rain delays.

Buddy Lazier was the 1996 Indianapolis 500 Champion and made his 20th run in the storied race on Sunday (but didn't finish).

Wissen did not attend the 101st Running this past Sunday because of a family wedding.

We did have a terrifying wreck this past Sunday on the 52nd lap between Scott Dixon and Jay Howard. How Dixon walked away from this is beyond me.

"Disaster was avoided, but for Steve Wissen, scars remained. He never worked at IMS again. He quit after 16 years at IMS, including 13 years on the safety crew, and he was traumatized by the near-death experience. He began having nightmares, haunted by visions of Lazier's race car getting closer and closer.

"Wissen went to Lazier's garage after the race to have a conversation, but was denied entrance. He never got a chance to talk to Buddy lazier until This past Thursday. You'd think that Lazier would have tried to contact Wissen, but that never happened.

But Buddy Lazier, now 49, says, "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thibnk about that when I'm here at the Speedway."

Steve Wissen has returned to IMS multiple times over the intervening years as a spectator, including last year's 100th running.

From the May 27, 2017,Indianapolis (Ind.) Star "Driver meets safety crew member he nearly killed during race 25 years ago" by Clifton Brown.

Buddy Lazier also cpmpeted in this year's 500.

"Steve Wissen was nearly killed by Buddy Lazier's race car 25 years ago. The two men had never met until Thursday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"In 1992, Lazier's race car streaked toward Wissen while he was doing his job on the track as chief of the IMS safety crew, cleaning up debris from Tom Sneva's wreck in Turn 4. Lazier left the pits and re-entered the track after the accident, accelerating to catch the field that was under the yellow flag.

"Lazier didn't realize Wissen's crew was still on the track in Turn 4. By the time Lazier saw Wissen, it was almost too late. The race car moved toward Wissen at more than 200 mph like a guided missile. Wissen raised his hands to his head. He closed his eyes. He prepared for the worst.

"'I was standing in the high-speed groove,' recalled Wissen, now 65 years old. 'It was like I watched it in slow motion.'

"Lazier missed Wissen by inches, deftly guiding the car between Wissen and the wall. Wissen was so close to being hit that he was spun around and knocked to the ground by the backdraft from Lazier's car."